Rate My Professor Laurie Hatch

Laurie Hatch serves as Chair and Associate Professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences at Vanguard University, a position she has held since 2011. She earned her Ph.D. in English from Claremont Graduate University in 2003, with a dissertation entitled 'Teasing Simple Sight: Physiological Optics and the Science of Perception. A Study of Selected Works from Gerard Manley Hopkins.' Her expertise lies at the intersection of science, religion, and literature in the 19th century, encompassing literary theory, detective fiction, medieval literature, and the works of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Prior to joining Vanguard University, Hatch worked as an adjunct instructor at multiple institutions, including Biola University from fall 1992 to 2003, Azusa Pacific University, Westmont College, and Claremont Graduate University.

Hatch teaches a variety of literature courses at Vanguard University, including those centered on C.S. Lewis and Tolkien, and leads the English Department as chair. Her scholarly contributions include peer-reviewed articles such as 'Gerard Manley Hopkins and Victorian Approaches to the Problems of Perception: Affirming the Metaphysical in the Physical' published in Christianity & Literature 65.2 (2016), 'Reading Tommy Orange's There There as Crime Fiction: Identity and the Poetry of Urban Life' in Crime Fiction Studies 6.1 (2025), and 'Gerard Manley Hopkins' in Victorian Poetry 55.3 (2017). She also authored 'A Hopkins Bibliography 2003' in The Hopkins Quarterly 33.1/2 (2006) and presented 'Teaching Postwar Japanese Fiction' at the Modern Language Association convention in 2023. As editor of The Lamp-Post, a review of C.S. Lewis studies for the Southern California C.S. Lewis Society, she has facilitated scholarly discourse on Lewis scholarship through issues such as volumes 36.4/37.1 and 37.2 (2019). Hatch's research bridges scientific perception, metaphysics, and Victorian poetry, enriching literary studies with interdisciplinary insights.